Mass Effect is my favourite video game series of all time, yet even I'm ready to admit that the title that kicked it all off is a touch overrated in the context of the franchise. Like Assassin's Creed, the world building and the richness of the story and characters are there, yet the rudimentary gameplay and cumbersome RPG elements make for a game that can be frustrating and repetitive to play. The option to explore numerous uncharted planets was a tantalizing prospect, yet the copy-and-paste nature to this element in the final release left quite a bit to be desired. Even with a more robust series of RPG systems that many fans mourned when they were dropped in subsequent releases, looking back it becomes obvious that they were discarded for a reason. Crippled by a convoluted inventory system, items that didn't particularly differ from each other and unimportant side-quests clogging up your mission log, it's clear to see why the second and third games were streamlined so much.
